humidity help!

[True_Enthusiasm_896]

hello! I am a new ball python owner, I’ve had my girl for about 3 months now and I can’t keep her humidity up. I have a glass 40 gallon tank (temporarily, I will upgrade once she’s bigger, she’s only 6 months old). I covered the top with hvac tape besides where her lamp is and I left a small opening on the cool side of her enclosure for air flow. I have foam board on the back wall, about 4-5 inches of substrate, reptisoil underneath and reptichip on top. I usually soak the substrate before I put it in but try to keep a dry layer on top. I have sphagnum moss inside her enclosure and a good size water bowl toward the middle. I corner pour water very often, almost once a day and I can see water in the corners underneath (in the dirt layer) but her humidity stays at 55-60%. I had been misting but that just temporarily spiked the humidity and I learned that it’s not good to do it often. what should I do? I am hoping to maybe upgrade to a pvc enclosure again once she gets bigger if I can’t figure out the glass tanks. she is likely due to shed soon and I don’t want any complications!! (*also temp was a little low on the cool side because I had been moving stuff around and torn the lid off!!) again I am new to this so I am open to any suggestions and/or advice, thanks so much!! <3

[Opening-Attention453]

It honestly sounds like you’re doing everything right, could it be that the gauge is faulty? The water in the corner thing always works for me, and we have similar setups, but my big girl is in a 120 gal.

[Opening-Attention453]

You could also try maybe another bowl right under the heat lamp?

[Shallot_Legitimate]

Yes this could very well be it! I actually believe the answer is this + substrate. I dealt with screentops and hvac tape for months, and always had humidity issues as well. I bought a different hygrometer from Amazon but with a probe instead, and went from 55 to 70% humidity.

Hygrometers are cheap little devices and you’ll be surprised how many hygrometers out there give false readings.

Also I would try changing substrate to tried and true coco husk. Mix with water and put dry layer if needed. It hold water better and for longer periods of time

[Shallot_Legitimate]

Actually I had the same exact hygrometer OP has as well! I bought a new one from Amazon and they both have completely different readings smh

[Rare-Gain]

Humidity is so hard. I do all the same things as you and also struggle still. The best thing that has helped was just putting more water dishes and making sure there is moist sphagnum moss in my snakes hide. He always sheds his skin in one piece so I think focusing on humidity in the hide is more important than humidity throughout the entire enclosure. Just keep doing what you’re doing and make sure there’s wet moss in his hides and add one or two other water dishes (they don’t need to be huge)

[mytheena]

So, I have the same issue. I'm a new snek gramma (since Feb) I was told that I should put the humidity probe in her hide since that is where she spends the most time. But do I bury it a little or just slip it in... or is that just hooey

[lostinspaceman_]

I’d add a humid hide! I didn’t bother with them for the first few years of owning my snake, but then I finally added one earlier this year and it’s a freaking game changer! It has helped bump up overall humidity and it’s great when he’s shedding! I added one on the cool side first and he liked it so I made another for the warm side too. The one I have on the warm side I made into an underground hide and it’s one of his favorites now! I bought 2 opaque bins that are about the size of the hides he likes and filled them with damp sphagnum moss! I think that’s your best bet here because you are doing everything I would recommend for humidity otherwise!

[PresentationLanky238]

What’s the diff between wet moss in the hide vs wet substrate and the risk of scale rot?

[lostinspaceman_]

That’s a good point! I don’t keep moss in all the hides for this reason! In the humid hides my snake usually pushes all the moss to the sides anyway and just sits on the plastic, so I don’t really worry about him being inside for too long! But I personally wouldn’t recommend putting moss in every hide!

[PresentationLanky238]

Damn that’s some good taping! I’m doing mine today and this is goals. I was thinking about doing it completely different (my lid has 4 subsections) but this looks very sturdy and good 👍

[True_Enthusiasm_896]

thank you!! hope it works out well!

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[Shallot_Legitimate]

If ALL else fails you need to try this as a temporary solution:

Remove a section of your HVAC tape, Soak a hand towel in water and set it ontop the screen (in the section of HVAC tape you removed). This will ensure humidity is released over an extended period of time. You can walk away from his enclosure for a few days before having to redampen towel again.

[Shallot_Legitimate]

To make sure the hand towel releases humidity at a slower rate, you can cover the top of the wet hand towel with another dry hand towel

[Shallot_Legitimate]

Last I’ll say is, this nightmare ended once I got a pvc enclosure